Zambia: Capital, Population, Currency and Facts

Key facts

Capital: Lusaka
Region: Africa, Eastern Africa
Population: 21,913,874 (2025)
Area: 752,614 km²
Currency: Zambian kwacha (ZMW)
Languages: English, Bemba (Zambia), Lozi, Lunda, Luvale
Calling code: +260
Internet domain: .zm
ISO codes: ZM, ZMB, 894
Time zone: UTC+2:00
United Nations: Member state
Postal code pattern: ##### (# = digit, @ = letter)

Land and position

Zambia covers about 752,614 square kilometres. By area it ranks 40th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than Chile and a little larger than Myanmar. It shares a land border with 8 neighbours: Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe. It is landlocked, which means it has no sea coast. Its centre lies at about 15° south, 30° east, in the southern hemisphere.

Neighbours

People

About 21.9 million people live in Zambia (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 62nd most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure, with about 0.27 percent of the world's people. On average there are 29 people to each square kilometre. About 46 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 67 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: English, Bemba (Zambia), Lozi, Lunda, Luvale, Nyanja, Tonga (Zambia). A person from Zambia is called Zambian.

Money and economy

The currency is the Zambian kwacha (code ZMW, symbol ZK). The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 28.9 billion (2025), which is about US$ 1,318 for each person (2025).

Time

Zambia uses one time zone, UTC+2:00 (Africa/Lusaka). Clocks stay the same all year: there is no daylight saving time.

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Offsets are for January 2026. See Time Zones for a converter.

Largest cities

City	People
Lusaka	2,212,301
Kitwe	665,961
Ndola	627,503
Chipata	327,059
Solwezi	301,370
Kabwe	288,598

City figures are from GeoNames and count the city itself, not the wider urban area. They can be some years old, so use them to see the order of size.

More in Eastern Africa

British Indian Ocean Territory, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar. See the whole region.

Figures were collected on 11 November 2026 from the World Bank, GeoNames and the open countries data set. See About and data sources. Borders and names follow those sources and do not express any view on disputed territory.